Manitou Springs Mayor's Thoughts

We are approaching the Labor Day 2025 Weekend. This November, Manitou Springs voters will select three City Council members and a new Mayor. They will vote on two taxation questions, one a bond issue request from School District 14, the other a proposal from City Council to increase the ceiling on the City’s Amusement (Excise) Tax.

Elsewhere on this blog, there are postings about things that have gotten done or are being done. As I look back, there is still a lot to do and there always will be. We – the City and the community – have covered a lot of ground in the last several years. You can refer to “Major Completed Projects” on this blog for a quick rundown of big-ticket items. But humor me as we think about the future and I finish my third and last term.

Art, music, and culture will invariably be at the top of any list of Manitou’s community priorities. Since we have an abundance of people to champion those things, I will not emphasize them, but I want to recognize that they are important.

I want to focus on City responsibilities. While much of the city budget goes to day-to-day operations, significant funding needs to be dedicated to capital projects. Maintaining and replacing infrastructure will always be a challenge.

The core duties of City government are to provide public safety with police and fire departments, to provide reliable water and sewer utilities, to have safe, reasonably well-maintained roads, parks, trails and a library and a swimming pool. For each and every essential need, there is a capital need.

Among the capital needs are two key considerations — the Ruxton Avenue reconstruction and burying the overhead utilities.

Infrastructure challenges

• The Ruxton Reconstruction Project will be a major challenge. Frankly, City Council had much greater hopes for the work than our budget will allow. Nonetheless, Ruxton will get partially rebuilt although it will not be easy and both residents and visitors will experience challenges.
• In May 2024 City Council and Colorado Springs Utilities approved a 20-year franchise agreement. Key to this is a commitment to bury our overhead utilities over those 20 years with CSU paying for half the costs. This is a massive project.
• The City hopes to coordinate, whenever possible, upgrading our outdated water mains, old sanitary and storm sewers, and to rebuild roads. This will not be cheap or easy but spreading the work out over 20 years will help.

Both of these efforts will take time, money, patience, and resolve. It will demand that Manitou’s citizens doggedly get this done, suffering in the near term if necessary for safer and more reliable infrastructure in the future.

Environmental Sustainability and Stewardship

• We have made important progress on the environmental front and will continue to fight for the environment. This ties in with many things – mitigating our wildlands fire hazards, protecting, and conserving water, and making sure that we can enjoy nature without negatively impacting our surroundings. Taking better care of Fountain Creek is long overdue. Husbanding our trees and greenery is fundamental.
• Environmental Sustainability is a shared responsibility and needs to be part of the work of every city board, commission, committee, and department. We have to take care of our home.  

• Our Open Space Advisory Committee has acquired recreational land. OSAC continues to lead the charge, enriching and protecting the community for future generations, and thinking ahead.

Financial Stewardship, Economic Development and Sustainability

• With Colorado Springs legalizing recreational marijuana sales, our economy requires creative rethinking. We will still be tied to tourism and need to make the most of it. Never more have we needed cooperation between the City, Visit Manitou Springs (formerly the Chamber of Commerce), private businesses, and the Business Improvement District (BID) and the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) to foster economic development.
• We need to be competitive as an area, with clean and attractive streets, sidewalks, and parks. We need to make it easy and fun to visit Manitou Springs and get around.

Transportation

• A lot of work and energy has gone to fight congestion, improve parking, and move people efficiently. These are the top vexations for residents, but we have made progress with shuttles and parking lots. This is an unending task.
• We should take a regional view of transportation issues and influence area policies. Highway safety is a major concern. Address the effects of growth and increased traffic on Highway 24.
• Develop more EV charging stations, continue to encourage satellite parking, and employ efficient transit practices.

Hazard Mitigation and Emergency Preparation

• Wildlands fire mitigation, flooding, and other hazards.
• Evacuation planning
• Sustainable insurance premiums. Insurance premiums have been climbing throughout Colorado, and this is a frustrating topic for elected officials.

I don’t mean to overlook some other important matters like affordable housing or homelessness and homeless camps. Those are vexing problems in their own right and require collaboration with other organizations.

Lastly, let us think about demographics. Manitou Springs is graying; our population’s average age is climbing. The other side of that coin is that half of District 14’s student body choices in from other districts. The composition of the community is changing and, with that, some of our traditional social institutions are as well. We will continue to need volunteers. While youthful energy is always appreciated, the need for older residents to shoulder volunteer projects is increasing.